Words by Fahad Malik.

For most of history, human attention has focused on physical surroundings, navigating landscapes, structures, and environments that demanded constant interaction. However, over the last twenty years, the focus has shifted dramatically towards the digital realm. Today, most people spend the majority of their day engaging with digital screens. This shift has been profound, as digital spaces often outperform physical environments in terms of perfection: they are smooth, fast, and efficient, in contrast to the imperfections of physical space, where doors creak and walls crumble.

The first digital space I encountered was the desktop of Windows 95, a system featuring a teal background with a Start button and a few icons like My Computer and Recycle Bin. Surprisingly, despite three decades of technological advancements, the fundamental design of this desktop space has not changed much. Today’s desktops and phone screens still rely on background images and icons to represent different applications. Even with advancements in spatial computing and virtual reality, these technologies merely project familiar desktop layouts onto three-dimensional environments. This lack of innovation raises important questions. Why hasn’t the layout of digital spaces evolved more radically? Is an icon with words required to represent an application? Why don’t frequently used applications expand or contract based on usage patterns? Why don’t digital environments change dynamically, perhaps reflecting different colours or textures depending on the time of day or the user’s location or mood?

In contrast, physical spaces have continually evolved throughout human history, with design innovations reshaping the way we live and work. The lack of parallel innovation in digital spaces suggests that designers may have neglected the potential to rethink these environments from first principles. As digital spaces increasingly dominate our lives, there is a clear need for a more dynamic, responsive design that can keep pace with the physical world's ingenuity. Perhaps the next era of digital space will finally embrace this potential.